Need advise..fast.. First 'gig' in 5 Days

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Need advise..fast.. First ‘gig’ in 5 Days

Hello everyone on DJTT, I’m actually brand new here.. was looking around the internet for a forum to possibly call home and help get myself to the next level with, and I really love the entire djtt website, so I figured this forum would be perfect. :roll_eyes:

But my real reason for coming here now, and posting this, is I’m nervous, excited, anxious, worried, all of the above. my first real event is FRIDAY! :eek:

I’ve been bedroom mixing and producing some for the last three years, so I don’t think Friday is going to be a trainwreck, I do feel I’m ready for a live event. But I’m nervous, and was hoping to get some solid advice, tips, suggestions, ANYTHING i should fix or learn or know before friday and do int he time between now and then to be prepared…

My setup right now is of course my computer, and a new NI Kontrol S2 controller with Traktor 2. :sunglasses:

The event itself is an event at my university put on by the student gov/programming board. its basically a Friday night rager to get students out and doing somthing instead of studying. It’s basically right int he middle of several dorm buildings.. housing like 3,000 students.. :eek:

My biggest concern is.. how can I deal with this first gig/event jitters and nervousness? How can I cope and deal with any stress or somthing during the event.. especially if i realize i messed somthing up somehow?

My second concern is i consider myself decent at least at mixing EDM of almost any form, mostly house/electro/dubstep/‘rage’ music basically.. anything. First genre i mixed was hardstyle/hardcore honestly… But this event will need to be more mainstream top40 is, hip hop some, and throw in some mainstream dubstep or house/electro.. like the mau or skrillex, porter, etc.. which ill be fine on there. But how can i prepare myself to take on more mainstream top40 and execute that well? ANyone have any fast tips or advice on hwo to mix that type of set correctly? how to improve rapidly possibly?

I’d love any kind of advice, help, anything. If theres anything you could tell me or advise me of in any way I’d love to hear it. If you want to just share your first event story that would be awesome too!

Heres some recent mixes I’ve done to just kinda give examples of what I’ve done/who I am basically…

(older)

2

Mixes sound pretty cool yo.

So some others will argue with me, but I feel that the best way too kill nervousness is too have a nice chill session before you go on. Maybe hang in your dorm with a few friends, go over your songs for the night, and have a drink or two too calm your nerves. Always works for me :smiley:

Top 40 stuff isn’t really that hard btw. Just be sure too plan out at least part of your set beforehand, maybe play and rehearse it, and do some simple transitions between songs. If you feel like you practiced enough before your set, then do some cool tricks or transitions! If your playing top 40 though, be sure too drop that banger that EVERYONE is listening too at the right time! Itll grab your crowd. Then be sure too play a lil somethin too get the ladies dancin with their dudes right after that.

Hint: Travis Porter ALWAYS works with the ladies. If you want to have girls shakin their ass at your shows, play some Roscoe Dash or Travis Porter.

You’ll probably rock this shit dude. No reason too be nervous. College kids just wanna party anyway lol

3

thanks a ton for a reply, and the positive attitude!! :sunglasses:

your right about one thing.. allll we want to do is party.. I’m pretty nervous too becuase I’ve never performed for this long and at an event before.. and its in front of all my peers. Everyone I know Knows that I’ve been wanting to dj and mix and do it in my spare time as like a passion/obsession and they all kinda expect me to be awesome. basically.. I try to stay humble and realize I’m still very new and have a long way to go, but I’m at that point where I need to prove myself and meet everyones expectations. My friends, family, peers, fraternity brothers, everyone will basically judge me on this thing i love so much on this performance. it’s kinda really stressful.

Any advice or tips on what to do to prepare between now and then? Specific ways to practice or prepare? What kinda things can i do to prep my tracks beforehand for a full length kinda set? I know how to prep cues and setup a mix between like 10 mins and an hour.. but i’ve never really tackled any longer. whats the professional ways to prepare or well used ways to prepare for an event?

thanks again for replying, and being so positive :smiley:

4

Just dont go too crazy, you might want to mix like often and show ppl your skills but a lot of people want to hear the songs full lenght, so try to let the songs play atleast about 4 minutes. Dont cut or mix them too early.

5

Just review your music beforehand. Build a playlist of some really dope songs for your night and make sure its at least close too the amount of time your set its. That’s what I do when i do top 40 stuff. Now, I don’ use the playlist too the wire, cuz a lot of times ill just think of songs in my head that would go with the current song thats playing, but its a good thing too have in case your like “fuck, i have only :45 seconds on this song”

Btw, i would suggest since its a very long set, to use a lot of the time in the tracks. Basically, I wouldn’t mix out a lot of songs until their near the end. No use burning yourself out in the first hour for a 3-4 hour gig. Most top 40 music now has a big ‘house’ element too them, so a relative tempo of 128 would do you pretty good. Clean transitions are important, but crossfader transitions can do the trick if you get nervous. You’ll probably be a lil nervous when you start, just don’t let it get too you.

Do a couple backspn transitions. Rock the mic. Tell all the girls in the house too make some noise. You kno, just DJ shit lol.

6

thanks for the tip :smiley: I was actually thinking about that.. I do often mix them sooner when i do like a 10 min mix or somthing becuase it just kinda works for that.. but i was thinking playing em out longer would be better cuz 1) like you said people would like to hear the entire song and 2) it would fill out much more of my time in my set…

thanks for the suggestion :sunglasses:

7

oh college girls.. lol
and backspins.. :confused: not my favorite lol, i guess that would be a easy transition to use if im in a jam or need to figure it out fast.. they always sound so.. eh to me tho lol but thanks for that tip.. I never really know how I’d handle a stressful moment where I may have lost the chance to transition real smoothly normally or have somthing planned, tats a good last resort..

Another thing I was wondering about.. I’m the kinda person who wants to be prepared for anything. a big fear i have is being just stuck or somthing in situations… like if my mix just stops or something breaks or goes wrong. I’m assuming it might be a good idea to pre-record a mix or set and bring it just incase something happens? Maybe put it on an ipod or CD and have ready to throw on if somthing stops working? What kinda length is usually good for a backup emergency mix? 15 minutes? 30 minuntes? an entire hour? :confused:

8

I think you will be fine, 3 years is really a long time and by now you really should know what you are doing, I did my first gig right after 3 months I started to DJ and it went really good. Even the pro DJ’s who was mixing for years make mistakes, it shows people that you are actually mixing and doing things live so don’t worry or curse at yourself if you do a mistakes couple times.

9

This always work for me.

One reason I get nervous is that everything will just break, so I always bring 1. some sort of short mix that’ll work to put on a CD if I have to fix my computer (~30min) and 2. a few CD:s that’ll keep me going on the CDJ:s with about the same stuff I have on my playlist, now I rarely have to use them, but it gets much calmer when they’re in the player and ready to go.

Also, if you get panicking as someone said, always have a playlist with cool songs, if that particular transition won’t be as smooth, people will forget it right away cuz’ the next song is FUCKING THAT ONE YEAAAAAHH. Or just loop 32/16/8 and fiddle with some effect for a buildup while you quickly load up another song…

10

Don’t worry too much about what your peers are thinking. I’d always respect someone much more for just doing their thing and being confident in it rather always looking over for appreciation or validation. The tunes in your first mix there sound good, maybe more end of the night than warming up stuff though!
I did notice a few clangs on your transitions though. Nothing major, just not totally locked phase wise. No one on the floor would notice, but if there’s anything you can practice for friday it’d be that. Just try and listen really close to the drums to get them tightly synced.

11

Have fun with it man! If you look nervous/scared when mixing that vibe is likely to spread onto the crowd. You’ve been mixing for years! You’ve got this!
Here are some good top 40 mashups and remixes. I played a gig for my high school and these worked damn well.
https://soundcloud.com/3lau

12

Nice mixes man, but I just gotta ask you for the song name @ 8:10? I’ve tried to find it since Tiesto played it live here in Sweden.

You’ll do gr8 on Friday:slight_smile:

13

Hey the Nikla, which school do you go to that needs to throw a Student Gov. sponsored party to get people to do something other than studying? I go to Wash U, and people here work damn hard, but not usually on Fridays…

Also, I dj’ed my first real gig on the Friday before Thanksgiving break (a 4-hour set for about 3000 people), and have these takeaways for you:

1). The most important thing is that you select songs that will work well with your crowd. I really like Electro House and Progressive House for partying, but Hip Hop (e.g. Lose Control by Missy Elliot) and pop songs (e.g. Firework by Katy Perry) often seemed to get more of a reaction from the crowd. No one is going to remember your mixing unless it is really bad. They will remember that you played songs they liked.
2). Have a large list of warmup songs. I have loads of bangers that I would love to throw, but you can tire out a crowd by using them too early, or using them too often.
3). Vary your BPM’s so that the set has some natural break points where people can go and rehydrate and recuperate for the next peak in your set. From your mixes, it sounds like this shouldn’t be a problem.
4). Are people going to make requests? This can change things.

Cheers & Good Luck,
Dayvue

14

thanks a ton for all the replies and help so far :smiley: I’m excited as all hell. I’m trying to put together a house party or two maybe during the week to test the waters and prepare myself some if I can.. :wink:

but just finished setting everything up and firing up my new S2 finally… feels amazing.
..now just trying to program it the way I want it.. kinda wanna configre this awesome custom mapping but can’t really figure out how to…

15

good luck, rock out and above all, HAVE FUN :slight_smile:

16

Setup :slight_smile:

thanks man! I hope to..

..
heres what my setup looks like at the moment.. currently redoing my laptop..

640×480 32.7 KB

:slight_smile:

17

Ean had a blog post about this not long ago:
Wouldn’t be a bad idea to throw in a name drop or something just to advertise yourself to your peers who don’t know about you. If not make sure to get the word out somehow!!

Blog post:Exercise Your Name: How To Make A DJ Drop